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In the groove (game)
In The Groove (abbreviated to ITG) is a game developed by Roxor and was released in 2004. Its intellectual property is currently owned (and unused) by Konami. }} |} Gameplay ITG plays in a similar way to DanceDanceRevolution, in that it is a 4 panel game where the steps scroll up the screen, but instead of having a score at the bottom of the screen there is a percentage at the top which is calculated as the song plays, allowing the players to see how well they are doing whilst playing. Another feature is the way that the life bar is displayed at the side of the screen, along with a song progress at the top of the screen. The notes are 3D models, and the perspective can be changed at the Modifier screen (at a double press of the selection button) as well as scroll speed. Mods can also be stacked allowing for different combinations to give a harder game or more interesting step chart. Note types not in DDR Aside from step and freeze objects (called “tap” and “hold” in ITG), there are objects in ITG that do not appear in DDR: Mines Mines are shown as white disks with 3 or 6 black spokes and a glowing red center. If the corresponding panel is pressed within its timing window, an explosion sound effect plays and the life bar depletes. Mines differ from Shock Arrows in that Mines can appear on one lane only, and that Mines do not hide the notefield for a moment when hit. Rolls Rolls are shown as an arrow with a yellow jagged tail. The head must be hit in time, then for the duration of the tail, that panel must be repeatedly pressed above a certain pace. Hands While strictly not a different note type, some ITG stepcharts have three or more objects at the same time. These are called “Hands”. They would be impossible to hit with only two feet on an unmodified DDR machine, but since the panels were raised higher on most converted machines, these could be hit by bracketing; hence, the patterns themselves are often called “brackets”. Modifiers ITG has a wider variety of modifiers than most DDR mixes. Scroll speed In addition to multiplicative scroll speed (e.g. 1.5x, called XMod), ITG supports constant scroll speed (e.g. C600, called CMod) and maximum scroll speed (e.g. M600, called MMod). XMod behaves in largely the same way as in DDR. CMod forces the entire stepchart to scroll at a constant speed, disabling scroll gimmicks. MMod behaves like a combination of XMod and CMod, in that the scroll speed is determined from the maximum BPM of the chart, but keeps any slowdowns or other scroll gimmicks. This behavior is similar to AV (Auto Velocity) on Andamiro's Pump It Up Prime 2 and later. Perspective Because the notes are 3D models, the perspective of the notes' scrolling can be changed. Most players use either Overhead or Hallway. Overhead makes the notefield parallel to the viewing plane, similarly to DDR. Hallway tilts the notefield somewhat to the front. These can be combined with Reverse scroll if desired. Noteskins ITG comes with several noteskins, the most popular of which are Cel and Metal; Cel has no separators in the middle of the arrow, while Metal has them. The color-coding is similar to that of DDR, but expanded. 16th notes are green, while other divisions are separated: triplets are purple, 32nds are yellow, and others are cyan. Hardware ITG runs on a custom made "BoXoR" which runs Debian Linux with a heavily edited version of StepMania, with ITG came the legality issue that first sparked the case, the fact that there was no custom made cabinet instead older Dance Dance Revolution machines were upgraded to this new machine, with a replacement of the internal hardware, Stickers and a new marquee replaced the ones on the cabinet. See also ITG court case Difficulties The difficulty levels range differently, from Easy to Expert and are measured in Bars (or blocks) from one (easiest) to thirteen (hardest). * Easy (Easiest setting, few arrows) * Medium (Slightly tougher, some techniques needed) * Hard (Techniques needed but Stamina isn't fully needed) * Expert (Stamina and techniques along with PA need to be as good as possible) Grading At the end of each song a grade is shown giving the player feedback on how they did, along with this a graph is generated which shows the progress during the song, dipping when the percentage goes down. * 4 Stars: 100% (a.k.a. “Quad star”) * 3 Stars: 99% * 2 Stars: 98% * 1 Star: 96% * S+: 94% * S: 92% * S-: 89% * A+: 86% * A: 83% * A-: 80% * B+: 76% * B: 72% * B-: 68% * C+: 64% * C: 60% * C-: 55% * D: Less than 55%, but not Life Depleted * F: Life Depleted - Round Failed Beta In the beta stages of the game, a song called "Atom Bomb" was seen along with alternative step values to certain songs. In The Groove {Arcade}